Shark

There are lots of things I love about Australia and one is Aussie fish and chips. Growing up I ate fish and chips about once a month – a rare take out meal in our family. We drove to the local shop where they cooked the battered fish and hand cut potatoes in bubbling beef tallow – delicious memories. So, when I was back in Melbourne, my mother and I went to pick up dinner and let me relive my childhood.

As we pulled up I realized I’d forgotten the wonderful graphics these store have…….

This image is painted right onto the store window (my flash is giving the eyes their surreal glow). Yes it’s a shark. As they have no bones they make great deep-fried fish fillets that we call flake. The graphics continue inside on the menu board.

The menu has expanded. since I was a child, and now includes a grilled fish option but why? A fish and chip shop is all about frying. I stayed true – fried fish, chips and a potato cake – a disk of potato battered and fried. But you have chips Jennifer! Yes, but a potato cake has its own unique texture and I’ve never seen them else where. There was a choice of 11 different fish, 11- I’m lucky to find 2 in Toronto. We chose flathead a sweet fish that’d been hastily added to board so we knew it was very fresh.

We drove home with that wonderful aroma of food fried in clean fat filling the car. We ate them with a lemon wedge, picked from the tree on our way through the back door, my mother’s homemade pickled onions and a chilled Aussie sauvignon. Who says you can’t recapture the past? You can improve on it – I never enjoyed my fish and chips with a glass of wine as a child.